Gun for underwater use



Oct. 17, 1961 M. J. RITZ GUN FOR UNDERWATER USE Filed June 6, 1960United States Patent; Ofi

3,004,533 Patented Oct. 17, 1961 ice 3,004,533 GUN FOR UNDERWATER USEMaurice Jean 'Ritz,"4 Avenue Ren Samuel, Ulamar't, France Filed June-6,1960,5er. No. 34,266 Claims priority, application France June 8, 1959 3Claims. '(Cl. 124-27) This invention relates to guns especially thoughnot exclusively suitable for use by skin divers for underwater shooting.

To alter for the popular sports of skin diving and underwater shooting,various types of weapons have been devised, in which a m'iss'ilein theform of a dart or herpoon is discharged from a gun or crossbow bymechanical energy which is usually stored as the tensioning of springs,elastic cables or the like, in a preliminary cocking operation. Sincewater is an incompressible medium it cannot conveniently be used tostore the necessary energy for firing a missile, as is done for examplein a conventional airgun. 'Cocking or tensioning the abovementionedresilient or elastic means prior to firing, is usually etfected by meansof the missile itself as it is loaded into the gun. This renders boththe loading operations, and the cocking operations, ditficult andstrenuous to carry out especially underwater. These operations as theywere heretofore performed, required the presence of a stable fulcrumsurface against which the butt of the gun could be firmly applied 'forloading. This latter requirement prevented or limited the use of the gunin midwater which otherwise would provide enhanced attraction. Moreover,the power of the guns that were generally available had to be limited tocorrespond with .the muscular capacity of the average sportsman andcould not exceed a definite -"limit. I

It is an object of this invention to provide an improved gun which willbe free of the above limitations. It 'is consequently an object toprovide a gun especially for underwater use which can be made tohave agreatly increased 'firing power than was heretofore possible withoutrequiring increased muscular effort from the user, and to provide suchan underwater gun which can be reloaded and cocked underwater withoutrequiring 'a stable fulcrum surface. .An object is to provide a gunusing spring tension energy for .the firing of a missile, in which thefunctions of loading the gun and of storing the spring energy, i.e.cocking the gun, will be separated from one another; and another object.is to utilize the surrounding medium, especially though not necessarilywhere this medium is water, for cocking a gun.

In accordance with an aspect of the invention .there .is provided a.gun, e.g. an underwater gun, including .tensionable spring means, meanscomprising a hand;pump for tensiouiug said spring means by thedisplacement of fluid derived from the surrounding medium, e.g. water,

which is compressed on displacement of the slider to a rearward positionby means of a dart-like-missile engageable with said slider for loading:the gun from the muzzle thereof, and the slider being thereupon.releasably retained in its rearward position by the trigger-actuatedmechanism. Defined behind .the piston in the barrel is a chamber intowhich fluid e.g. water from the surrounding medium can be forced bymanual reciprocation of a handpump thereby to move the piston to aforward position in which it compresses both springs and thus imparts ahigh total compression to the combined spring means. Thereafter triggeraction will ,propel the slider forward and Jfire the missile with .thefull amount of the compression force stored in the spring means.

It will be appreciated that with the arrangement of the invention, thegun "is 'loaded'by inserting the dart into the barrel vfrom the muzzleand thereof against the moderate resistance of only one (e.g. a longerone) of said springs, which may be made relatively week so that theloading operation will be easy .to perform and will not requireIulcruming the gun but against a fixed surface as was heretoforerequired. 0n having loaded the gun, the user proceds to coc'k, or storeenergy into it and he does this by reciprocating the hand pump toforcewater '(or other fluid) into the chamber behind the pistonthereby-driving the piston forward and placing high compression againstthe spring means, e.g. compressing the strong short spring in additionto the long spring, where two unequally dimens'ioned springs are used.This energy-storing or cook ing operation does not require greatmuscular elfort either since it can be effected progressively bysuccessive and trigger actuated mechanism for releasing the spring 4tension to discharge a missile from the gun.

In another aspect there is provided a gun, e.g. an underwater gun,including tensionable spring means, for imparting to the spring means afirst and moderate amount of tension on loadingamissile into the gun,fluiddisplaccment means comprising a hand pump imparting -additional andincreased tension to the sp ing means by the displacement of fluid, cg.water derived ifrom the surrounding medium, and nigger-"actuatedmechanism for suddenly releasing the total spring tension to --fire saidmissile.

In a preferred construction the gun may include a barrel with a sliderdisplaceable in a front part and a piston slidable in a rear partthereof. The spring means comprise a pair of coaxial compression coilsprings one of reciprocations oi the hand pump, and hence the storedfiring energy can greatly exceed -the range of valuesiheretofore madepossible.

An exemplary embodiment of the invention will now be described forpurposes of illustration only, with reference to the accompanyingdrawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a side view, partly in section;

FIG. 2 shows the rear par-t of the ,gun as seen on a plane displacedfrom that of FIGURE 1;

FIG. '3 isa'larger-scale view of the gun in section; and

FIG. 4 isxa section on line IV-IV of FIGURE .3.

As shown in the drawings, an underwater hunting gun comprises a gripportion 1 made of metal or molded plastic, and secured to a side of maintube or barrel '2. A conventional missile in the form of a dart orharpoon 3 is shown engaged in the front end of the barrel by means laterdescribed. Associated with the grip is a trigger-actuated gun-lockmechanism including a scar 4 pivoted at its forward end to the gripstructure and pivoted at its free rear end to the front end of a triggermember 5 pivoted at an intermediate point to the grip structure. Atension spring 6 attached to a rear end of the trigger serves to biasthe trigger to its idle position. A safety catch 77 is 'pivoted'to thegrip structure and engages the rear end -of the trigger to preventdisplacement thereof except when the catch is rotated by means of anexternal 'iever not shown.

A disk-shaped slider 8 is displaceahle in the barrel 2 and is formedwith a socket in the centre of its forwardly directed face to receivethe rear end or shaft of the dart Stherein. Said shaft is passed at anintermediate point thereof through a plug 9 stopping the front end oftubular barrel 2. "Ihe disk -8 has a boss 8a proiec'ting from the centreof its rear face and serving to seat the front ends of two separate coilsprings 10 and 11, of unequal diameters, with the larger diameter spring11 extending axially of the spring .10. Preferably, the smaller diameterspring 10 is substantially weaker thanspning .11. In the exemplaryembodiment, shown, the weaker spring 10 is substantially donger, inrelaxed 'lengt-h, than spring :11 and is permanently engaging the slider8 whereas spring 3 11 does'not normally engage the slider 8. Bothsprings and 11 at their rear ends are seated against a piston 12provided with a seal ring 13 slidable in the rear end section of the.tube 2. The rear end of the tube is sealed by a screw plug 14. Securedto the outer side of the plug 14 is a block 15 to which is secured therear end of a further tube 16 which extends parallel to the main tube orbarrel 2 and is secured thereto by means of a collar clamp 17 (see FIGS.1 and 2).

Slidably mounted within the tube 16 is a piston 18 provided with a sealring '19 and having a piston rod 20 extending forwardly from it. Securedto the outer end of rod 20 is a vane 21 which is of arcuateconfiguration in cross section so as to be capable of partly surroundingthe main tube 2 on rotation of the vane 21, rod 20 and piston 1'8, andin its rotated position the vane 21 will not substantially projectbeyond the outer countour of the barrel tube 2. v

Mounted in a chamber of the block 15 is a first valve 22 which is urgedby a spring 23 into sealing engagement with a hole 24 connecting thechamber 25 with the exterior space. A transverse passage 26 connects thechamber 25 with another chamber 27 formed in the plate 15 in axialalignment with the tube or pump body 16. Chamber 27 is connected byanother passage 28 with a third chamber 29 formedin the plate 15 on theside remote from chamber 25 and extending generally transversely tochamber 27. A slide valve 30 in chamber 29 is biassed by a spring 31into sealing engagement with passage 28. The chamber 29 is furthermoreconnected by a passage 32 with'a chamber defined in the rearmost portion2a of barrel "tube2 behind the piston 12. Moreover, thechamber 29communicates, through a passage not shown, with a vent port 33 (see FIG.4) opening to the exterior. The vent 33 is normally sealed by a valvemember 34 under the action of a spring 35. The valve member 34 can bedisplaced to a venting position by a trigger 5 will then disengage thecatch 4 to release the slider 8, whereupon the stored mechanical energywill expand the springs 10 and 11 and. propel the dart 3 at highvelocity from out of the gun. To recondition the gun for a fresh shot,the lever 36 is actuated to lift the vent valve 34, thus allowing thewater in chamber 2a to escape, and the piston 12 to be pushed back toits rearmost initial position by the action of the springs 10' and 11.On release of lever 36, the valve 34 reengages its seat under the effectof spring 35 and the weapon can be reloaded by insertion of a dart 3.The action of safety catch 7 to latch the trigger 3 against unwanteddisplacement is conventional and need not be described in detail.

It will be understood that the invention may be embodied in a widevariety of forms other than the one specifically illustrated anddescribed herein. While the invention is of especial use in connectionwith an under water gun, it is not necessarily restricted thereto sinceit would be clearly applicable to a weapon of the airgun type for use inordinary atmospheric surroundings. In such case the fluid forced intothe chamber 2a for driving the piston 13 to its forwardly displaced orcocked position would be air rather than water. Instead of using thefluid constituting the surrounding medium for this purpose, theinvention may use an auxiliary fluid stored in a container attached tothe pumping means. Where the fluid used is a compressible fluid such asair, compression thereof in the chamber 2a by pump action may serve toaugment the energy stored by the tensioning of the spring means.

It will be understood that the expression spring tention and cognateexpressions as used in the claims, are

, to be interpreted in their broad sense as designating the lever 36pivoted on a cross-pin 37 and having a finger 38 portions, a sliderdisplaceable in a front portion of the engageable with the valve 34. Theunderwater gun described operates as follows:

In the idle condition the rear tube chamber 2a is substantially undernormal pressure, and both springs 10 and 11 are relaxed. The piston 12is in its rearmost posi- A tion and the slider 8 is free to move in thefront section of the barrel 'tube 2. When desired to use the gun, a dart3 is inserted into the front end of the barrel 2 with the rear end ofthe dart shaft engaged in, the socket. of slider 8 positioned inengagement with the spring 10. The dart is pushed inwards with moderatemuscular force against the weak spring 10, so as to engage the slider 8behind an upper catch orprojection of sear 4, in latched condition. Bothsprings 10 and 11 are at this time compressed under moderate pressure.In order to cock the gun and compress springs 10 and 11 under fullforce, the user rotates the arcuate vane 21 to a convenient position asshown in FIG. 3, and reciprocates the vane in the fashion of a pumphandle to pump water into the chamber 2a. On pulling vane 21 forward, asuction is created in pump body 16 behind piston 18, and this suctionlifts valve 22 inwards against spring 23, drawing in water through thehole 24. As the vane 21 is thereafter pushed backards, the valve 22seals against hole 24 by the action of spring 23, and the entrappedwater is expelled into the chamber 2a of tube 2 by way of passage 28through the valve 30 in opposition to the spring 31. Thus by a series ofreciprocations on the vane 21 water is pumped into chamber 2a,progressively pushing the piston 12 forward against the springs 10 and11 until the desired degree of spring tension has been achieved. Thestroke of pump piston 18 may if desired be limited by a restriction inthe tube 16. The springs 10 and 11 can be compressed to full pressurewithout excessive muscular effort on the user's part. The vane 21 isthen rotated down over the side of barrel 2 as indicated in FIGURE 2.Action on.

mechanical energy storable by deformation of spring means, whether suchdeformation be in the nature of compression, tension or torsion.

What I claim is: 1. A gun comprising a barrel having front and rearbarrel, a piston slidable in a rear portion of the barrel, a pair ofsprings in said barrel between said slider and said piston, said springsbeing coaxial and of unequal diameter and unequal length, said sliderbeing displaceable to a rearward position by a missile engageabletherewith to compress the longer spring, trigger-actuated mechanism forreleasably retaining the slider in such rearward position, a chamberdefined in the rear end of said barrel, and a hand pump manuallyoperable to force fiuidinto said chamber to force the piston forwardlyand thereby compress both of said springs, whereupon operation of thetrigger to release the slider will cause the slider to be propelledforwardly of the barrel under the total compression of both springs tofire the missile.

2. A gun comprising a barrel having front and rear portions, a sliderdisplaceable in a front portion of the barrel, a piston slidable in arear portion of the barrel, a pair of springs in said barrel betweensaid slider and said piston, said springs being of unequal length andspring rate, said slider being displaceable to a rearward position by amissile engageable therewith to compress the longer spring,trigger-actuated mechanism for releasably retaining the slider in suchrearward position, a chamber defined in the rear end of said barrel, anda hand pump manually operable to force fluid into said chamber to forcesaid piston forwardly and thereby compress both of said springs,whereupon operation of said trigger mechanism to release said sliderwill cause said slider to be propelled forwardly of said barrel underthe total compression of both springs to fire the missile.

3. A gun comprising a barrel having front and rear portions, a sliderdisplaceable in a front portion of the barrel, a piston slidable in arear portion of the barrel, a pair of springs in said barrel betweensaid slider and said piston, said springs being coaxial and of unequaldiameter and unequal length, said slider being displaceable to arearward position by a missile engageable therewith to compress thelonger spring, trigger-actuated mechanism for releasably retaining theslider in such rearward position, a chamber defined in the rear end ofsaid barrel, and a hand pump to force fluid into said chamber, said pumpcomprising a tubular pump body, a pump piston slidable in said body, apiston rod extending from said pump piston, and an actuating memberattached to said piston rod for reciprocating said pump piston, a valveblock secured to the rear end of said barrel, an inlet valve in saidvalve block communicating with the exterior thereof and with the rearend of said pump body, an inlet valve controlling such communication, anoutlet chamber in said valve block communicating with the rear end ofsaid pump body and with said barrel chamber, and an outlet valvecontrolling the last named communication, operation of said pump forcingfluid into said barrel chamber to force said piston forwardly tocompress both springs whereupon operation of said trigger mechanismreleases said slider to be propelled forwardly of said barrel under thetotal compression of both springs to fire the missile.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,381,639 Hess June 14, 1921 2,321,076 Gora et a1 June 8, 1943 FOREIGNPATENTS 425,555 Great Britain Mar. 18, 1935

